Biden On Ida Recovery: 'The Nation Is Here To Help"

As utility crews strive to restore power to New Orleans, one of hurricane-ravaged Louisiana’s most pressing needs is fuel.

“It’s impacting all of our recovery efforts,” Governor John Bel Edwards said Wednesday in a press conference. “Fuel just isn’t available to us the way we would want it to be.”

It’s a painful irony for a state that, most of the time, supplies much of the U.S. with gasoline and diesel. Louisiana’s refineries represent nearly one-fifth of the country’s crude-processing capacity. Many fuel producers shut their plants there as Hurricane Ida roared ashore Sunday, leaving supplies pinched. And widespread damage to the electricity grid has cut off their power.

Edwards said he had spoken with the White House to enlist President Joe Biden’s help bringing fuel to the region. The president plans to visit Louisiana Friday, he said, to see Ida’s destruction first-hand and discuss recovery needs.

“Quite frankly, we need bulk fuel brought in before the refineries come back up on their own, because we don’t know when that’s going to be,” Edwards said. “We need the rest of the country to give up a little bit of their fuel to come back to Louisiana.”